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Friday, July 6, 2012

Rules for Eating (and nod to the sour cream caulk gun!)

(Hey blog readers! Just FYI - I will have a new post for you to read each Monday, Wednesday and Friday! If you are enjoying the blog, subscribe to it by becoming a member on the right, or by email at the top. Hope you enjoy!) I
used to eat at Taco Bell all the time. It was great. I mean, who doesn’t enjoy
boiled meat and dubious nacho cheese that never hardens? Mmmm. I did. And what
about that sour cream caulking gun? Ingenious, right?

“Excuse me, Ma’am.
Could you please caulk me some more sour cream? I didn’t quite get enough the first go around.”

“No problem, Ryan.
Because of our sour cream caulking gun, that will only take me about 2.5
seconds to add some more.”

Brilliant.

I’d love to go
back in time and meet the enterprising youngster who thought of putting a tube
of sour cream into a caulking gun, instead of, I don’t know, caulk!

But this post
isn’t really about the sour cream caulking gun…or anything else we could throw
into a caulking gun (leave any ideas you have for the caulking gun in the
comments below!), it’s about why I stopped eating at Taco Bell.

For that, I’d like
to thank, at least partially, journalist and food activist Michael Pollan who wrote (among
many other things) a brief little treatise called “Food Rules” which is worth
the afternoon it takes to read it (and the few bucks to buy it). In it, he describes his rules for eating,
including a three-rule rubric that I have adopted as my own:

Eat
real food (sorry, dubious nacho cheese that never hardens)

Mostly
plants (he champions a mostly vegetarian diet for health and humanitarian
reasons…as do I. I will post recipe ideas for healthy, meat substitutes in later posts...keep your eyes peeled!)

Not
too much (Chipotle Mexican Grill gets an exemption on this one…only because it
is just too delicious. I would have no problems breaking this rule if I
suddenly discovered 3 Chipotle burritos sitting in front of me. If I’m going
down…I’m going down swinging! Chipotle!)

It’s
by these three rules that I eat, anymore. The difficult reality, however, is that
eating by the first two rules raises the cost of your shopping bill, at least
some. And while it truly is unavoidable, my hope is to bring you less expensive
options that fit within these rules and that won’t break the bank. Next Monday
I will be posting a great recipe that will replace your mundane (and probably not
so healthy) Sloppy Joe brew - that kids will also love! So don’t be discouraged, because hey, at least
rule #3 helps keep the bill down all by itself!

I'm not a fan of fast food. That being said, I am REALLY not a fan of Chipotle (I just can't get into it no matter how hard I try). I'm thankful that you're still willing to be my friend after that last confession! :)

I love cooking and creating my own meals - it's really inspiring! As far as the caulking gun - I could maybe use it for Greek Yogurt - it would be FAR easier to squirt it right into my 20-month-old's mouth than to have him mess it everywhere! :)

I really don't know what to say. It has taken me this long (several hours) to cool off and even sit behind the computer without wanting to write hurtful things. Your Chipotle comment enraged me to the point of seeing stars and hearing voices. I must admit, I am a bit better now. I am grateful that you weren't here to see my fit of rage. It might have been a bit embarassing.

Ryan, I LOVE Chipotle!!! We have come a long way since the Taco Bell days!! So pedestrian!!But was it really BOILED meat?? YUK!! Can't wait for the Sloppy Joe recipe!! I will be making it next week!Thanks!

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About Me

I live in Minnesota with my beautiful wife and 4 children. About six years ago we completely overhauled the way we ate...for both health and humanitarian reasons. But since we operate on a single salary income, it had to be cheap and easy! This is my story.